The present invention relates generally to a system and method for searching for a specific webpage within a website, and more particularly for using a component from the website address to internally search for a webpage within the website.
The Internet, including the World Wide Web, has rapidly grown in recent years, with large amounts of information available. Websites continue to be added to the Internet, and many websites are growing, as increasing numbers of webpages are added to them. In general, a website comprises one or more webpages which are related, or linked, to each other, where the website has a unique address, referred to as a universal resource locator (URL), associated with the website. Webpages within the website will also have their own unique addresses. Commonly, the home page of a website will have the default address (e.g., www.website.com), while the other webpages will have an address with a website component and a webpage component. For example, a webpage may have an address of xe2x80x9cwww.website.com/stuff,xe2x80x9d where xe2x80x9cwww.website.comxe2x80x9d is the website component and xe2x80x9cstuffxe2x80x9d is the webpage component.
Although the Internet and World Wide Web (the xe2x80x9cWebxe2x80x9d) contain vast amounts of information on just about every topic imaginable, it is not always easy for a user to navigate the Web and retrieve information relevant to the user""s area of inquiry. This is in part because websites and webpages are stored on servers throughout the world. But, the Internet and the World Wide Web are like vast libraries without indexes or card catalogs. Thus, various technologies have been developed to assist users in locating particular information within the computers and servers connected over the Internet. For example, websites and webpages may be viewed using standard web xe2x80x9cbrowsingxe2x80x9d software such as Netscape""s NAVIGATOR(copyright) and Microsoft""s INTERNET EXPLORER(copyright) applications. Service providers such as Microsoft, Alta Vista, Yahoo!, Excite, InfoSeek, Lycos, and others provide xe2x80x9csearch enginesxe2x80x9d which help users find information on the Web.
However, there are a number of deficiencies in the current commercially-available search engines. In order to use a search engine, a user desiring to locate information on a particular subject will typically input and submit a search query comprising one or more search terms or key words to the search engine. The search engine typically is programmed to scan through an index of webpages which the particular search engine maintains for those webpages which contain search terms entered by the user. The search engine retrieves all webpages containing such search terms from among the webpages stored in its index, and serves to the user a listing of URLs for each such webpage. In many cases, the search engine will retrieve more web pages than those which are actually relevant to the user""s search query merely because the webpage may by happenstance include one or more of the search terms or key words input by the user. The user may then be required to sort through the multiple irrelevant websites and/or webpages to find the desired information. Furthermore, the search engine""s list of URLs may include discontinued links, i.e., URLs for webpages which are no longer available. The user selecting such a URL may be presented with a blank page and a message indicating that the page cannot be displayed (e.g., xe2x80x9cHTTP 404 Not Foundxe2x80x9d).
The user may reduce his/her time spent searching if he/she knows the address or URL of a particular website. However, in many cases, the user may know the URL for the homepage of the website, but not know the URL for a particular desired webpage within such website. Thus, the user may have to manually search within the website to find the desired webpage. This may require moving through a number of pages, and reviewing information which may not be desired by, or relevant to, the information sought by the user.
Some websites allow a user to search for a particular subject matter by a search engine within the website. Such a search engine may suffer from the drawback of requiring that the user first find the search engine within the website. Further, the user then is required to manually input the search term once the search engine is found. Even after the search engine is found, this may not substantially improve upon the user""s manual search through the website.
These and other drawbacks with current search engine technologies exist.
An object of the present invention is to overcome these and other drawbacks in existing systems and methods.
Another object of the invention is to provide a process and system for internally searching in a website for a particular webpage.
A further object of the invention is to provide a process and system for conducting searches for and retrieving information from webpages which are more efficient than current processes and/or systems because the process and system of the present invention does not retrieve irrelevant information in addition to relevant information.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by means of instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
To achieve these objects and in accordance with the purpose of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, a process for searching for a webpage internal to a website comprising a plurality of webpages, comprises the steps of: receiving from a requester an address corresponding to the website, the address comprising a website component and a webpage component; performing a search of the website based on the webpage component; and transmitting the search results to the requester.
In another aspect, a system for searching for a webpage internally within a website comprising a plurality of webpages comprises a receiver module for receiving from a requester an address corresponding to the website, the address comprising a website component and a webpage component; a central controller module for performing a search of the website based on the website component; and a transmitter module for transmitting the search results to the requester.